Wiggins: Next stop, Tour de France prologue

Bradley Wiggins went for a walk around Rome after finishing second behind fellow pursuit rider Ignatas Konovalovas of Cervelo in the final 2009 Giro d’Italia time trial.

It wasn’t to warm down after his ride, or see a little bit of Rome. He needed time to let go of the anger that was boiling inside him missing out on victory by a single second.

Wiggins was rightly fuming after being one of the few riders to race the final five kilometres of the course in the rain because of a mid-afternoon shower.

To avoid crashing on the slippery Rome cobbles, he was forced to roll slowly through the final corners and spent more time out of his aero position than in it. Wiggins was three seconds faster than Konovalovas at the halfway point but lost four seconds in those final kilometres.

Wiggins had targeted the final time trial but the unpredictable weather ruined his day.

“I realise I was one of the best on the day physically, but bad luck unfortunately shone upon myself with weather as it did on some of the others like Menchov, who was also on a stage winning ride before crashing,” Wiggins said later on Sunday evening.

“Now I can consider that I have moved on enough in this Giro to be a real contender for the TDF prologue with the help and support from the best support staff and management team in the world of cycling today – Team Garmin.”